Maintenance man on infant remains: "Ain't never seen anything like that in my life"

North Canton police are investigating two sets of infant-sized remains found in a foot locker and expect it to take several weeks for DNA results to determine the age and sex of the deceased. A maintenance worker who witnessed the discovery said it was unlike anything he'd ever seen.

Doug Lindower said he was working at the mobile-home park on N. Main Street when he saw a distraught man "running around," throwing his hands in the air.

The Royal mobile park manager and maintenance worker went to help and found the man had discovered a footlocker with gruesome contents.

"I just ain't never seen anything like that in my life," Lindower said.

Inside, a partial skull that could fit in the palm of a hand and other infant-size bones were wrapped in "pretty disintegrated" cloth covering, said North Canton Police Chief Stephan Wilder.

The son of a recently deceased 66-year-old woman found the trunk while cleaning her mobile home with his cousin, and officers were called at 12:20 p.m. Monday to the home at 1161 N. Main St.

They contacted investigators with Stark County Coroner Dr. P.S. Murthy's office, who determined there were two sets of human skeletal remains.

TESTING NEEDED

North Canton detectives and the county coroner's office are continuing to investigate, and the remains are being sent to the Anthropology Department of Mercyhurst University in Erie, Pa., for forensic examination.

Wilder said it could be weeks before DNA results reveal the infants' age or sex. The tests also may help determine how long the remains were in the trunk and who they belonged to.

"We can't make any judgments calls here, as to whether they're from family or not," Wilder said. "We don't know. We don't know whether they've been five years there or 40 years."

The deceased woman lived in North Canton for the past five years after moving from Louisville, and Wilder said police are not yet sure whether she had any knowledge of its contents. She died Nov. 28 and her son, who lives in California, was at the property to clean out her belongings.

Her son declined to comment when reached Tuesday by The Repository. Messages were left with remaining relatives in the Louisville area.

The blue trunk — about 38 inches long, 17 inches tall and 15 inches wide — was locked. Wilder said her relatives didn't want to throw it away without checking the contents.

"When they opened it up, they were, I think, rather shocked as to what they saw and called us immediately," he said.

SHOCKING FIND

Lindower said the son, whom he saw outside in the mobile park, told him he had found something in his mother's trailer before noon Monday.

"I asked him, I said, 'What's wrong? I mean, you all right?'

"He goes, 'Yeah, but ... I found something really weird in this trailer.'"

Lindower joined him and his relative as they uncovered the bones, which were wrapped in blankets and a trash bag inside the trunk. At first, Lindower said he thought they might be animal remains, but there was no fur. The surrounding blankets were falling apart.

Page 2 of 2 - "What was in there was definitely in there for a long time," he said.

The woman lived alone at the mobile park, and Lindower said she generally kept to herself. He occasionally helped her with outdoor chores and would clean the snow off her car because she was disabled and used a walker.

"She was a nice lady," he said.

Cleaning her home, though, may take time. Lindower said he saw piles of stuff inside and expected it to take at least a month for the place to be rentable.

"It was pretty deplorable conditions in there," he said.

Police searched the home and found nothing to assist in the death investigation. Wilder said officers were able to talk with the son Monday and are working to contact area relatives, who they hope may have information about the trunk.

"We don't know what was in that footlocker when she lived in Louisville, and if that footlocker belonged to somebody else before it got to her," he said.

Detectives will attempt to trace the trunk's origins and determine if anyone knows where the remains came from, which Wilder said could take some time. The case, he said, is a "very unusual situation" for the North Canton community and the only like it he's experienced during his career.